


Star People

by sunsetveins



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, One Direction (Band), Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Anxiety Attacks, Character Death, Depression, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jalex is mainly at the end, Multi, New Year's Eve, One Direction doesn't play a big part, Sad Alex, Virgin Alex, idk how to tag this, just saying, please tell me if I need to tag something for someone okay, there's a lot of people - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:26:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6029424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetveins/pseuds/sunsetveins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He doesn't end up lying, simply because he knows some people are stars, too, and he thinks maybe Jack is one of those people.</p><p>Or, the one where Alex is a virgin and lives with all of his friends in a big house. There's a lot of them, and some of them don't even really live there, but they've all got big city dreams and this just so happens to be the story of how Alex makes his come true. Just, you know, with a dash of couples and drama and pain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star People

**Author's Note:**

> This is also on Wattpad. I'm not proud of that, but oh well. I wrote this, I promise.  
> This version is slightly edited. I might edit it more. Who knows? Enjoy.

If Alex was to write a story about his life as it had gone thus far, it wouldn't sound like he had been alive for 22 years.

And he had.

Alex was 22 years old, with a birthday coming up in just 4 days from now. The date on the calendar in his shared kitchen read December 10th. He wasn't very excited.

He was 22 years old, almost 23, and what did he have to show for it?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

In all of the 22, almost 23, years of his existence, Alex had never done anything.

Well, not really, anyway.

He finished high school and was accepted by almost every college he applied to. He had a great group of friends and they all lived in a big house. He had a decent job at his friend Frank's record store. There was always food on the table and everything was paid for every month. He was by no means doing bad. It's just...

Alex had never _done_ anything.

He was, as Tyler would say, the sexual equivalent of a social anxiety ridden teen.

Meaning, he was a blushing virgin in every single possible way and he was totally awkward about it. Like, if you even brought up sex Alex might just pass out from the amount of embarrassment the very concept brings him.

Troye says it's cute, but from the way he smiles so big and wide when Connor laughs at him, Alex is pretty sure he only says it to make him feel better.

He's never done anything and to be honest, it's starting to look like he never will.

Or, at least, that's what Tyler says to him when it's date night and he's left at home all alone.

_"It's starting to look like you're going to be alone forever, Gaskarth!" he shouts as they walk towards the door, laughing when his ginger headed boyfriend whacks him on the head and places a hand at his waist to guide him out the door._

Alex always found Ed to be rather confusing, yet still amazing, with the way he'd scold Tyler for being rude while at the same time being absolutely lovely to him. He was a good friend at the same time that he was a perfect boyfriend.

From Alex's perspective, anyway.

When Alex says he's a virgin in every possible way, he means it. He's never held hands, kissed, made out, or had sex with anyone. He's never even been on a date.

Because he's never been in a relationship.

It's sad, really. He's 22 years old and he's never been in a relationship. That's not to say he hasn't ever been interested in anyone, because that's the farthest thing from the truth. He's just never actually acted upon any of those feelings.

And no one else ever had either.

Whether that's because no one has ever taken an interest in him or simply because they were just too shy, Alex doesn't know, but no one had ever expressed having any more than platonic feelings for him.

Katie said they were idiots. Alex thinks they were just smart enough to know that he wasn't worth it.

But to each their own, really.

It's December 10th, as Alex previously stated, and that means it's time.

It's date night again.

-

They leave at 8, usually. Tonight they decide to leave at 7.

"What're you guys doing?" Alex questions when he sees Katie and Kate checking their hair in the hall mirror. They're all done up and cute. Matching pastel purple dresses with ripped black tights and beat up high tops.

Katie has on Phil's white Pokémon jacket and her lace fingerless gloves. Her nails are black and her lipstick is light pink. Gerard must've done her eyeliner because it's thick but applied to absolute perfection.

Kate has obviously abducted Ashton's hat, because she's placing it on her head and fixing it in the mirror. She doesn't have a jacket yet, but Alex assumes she'll end up stealing one of Troye's pullovers before she leaves. Her nails are dark purple and she isn't wearing any lipstick, but her eyeliner matches Katie's almost to a t and she's wearing one of Harry's rings.

They look beautiful, but then again they always do.

"Going out," Katie replies, making a duck face in the mirror aimed at Alex's reflection. He sticks his tongue out at her.

"Well yeah," he says sarcastically, "obviously. But at seven?"

Kate makes a face at her twin through the mirror, and Alex marvels at the fact that they're having a reflection eye conversation. It's kind of creepy.

The slightly taller of the two turns to him.

"You're aware that you're coming with us tonight, correct?" Kate asks, raising an eyebrow effortlessly. He hates how the twins can do that.

He's completely confused by what he's hearing right now.

"Um, no."

Kate sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. She shakes her head, muttering under her breath about Tyler and how rude he is.

He still doesn't get it.

"Alex," Katie says softly, coming to stand closer to him, "we felt like tonight, since it's so close to your birthday, that we should all go out together. You know you won't feel like going out with us on the 14th, and we really want to spend some time with you outside of this house. You never come out with us, so. We just kind of threw this plan together."

Katie comes even closer, smiling at him like she's looking up at the stars outside, and he almost feels like it's because that's how she sees him. Like he's something worth staring at like he's made of spun gold, like he's worth something to someone.

Katie always did make him doubt his insecurities.

"Tyler was supposed to tell you," Kate grumbles, "but he decided to be a little brat and not do it."

"What didn't my boyfriend do?" Ed speaks as he stumbles on the last stair, smiling a little cheerily.

He looks adorable, to be quite honest. His hair is an unruly mess and his eyes are sleepy. He's got on this too big dark green sweater and black jeans, grey converse on his feet. His sleeves go down past his knuckles to make sweater paws and it's obvious he's been chewing on the ends of them. There's a red scarf clutched in his right hand and he's just cute, yeah? Really cute.

Alex really needs a boyfriend.

"He didn't tell Alex about him coming with us to dinner tonight because he decided to be a little shit about it," Kate responds, crossing her arms.

Ed clicks his tongue, "I'll talk to him later."

Kate nods, satisfied. She then grabs Katie by the arm and drags her down the hall and around the corner. When they're out of sight, footsteps unheard against the wooden floors, Ed turns to Alex and smiles.

"I'm glad you're coming tonight, Alex. It'll be nice to have you out with us for once."

Alex doesn't think he means for it to sound the way he takes it, so he forces a grin and agrees.

Ed nods in acknowledgment, taking his agreement for what it was. He turns toward the mirror and fits the scarf around his neck.

"You should go get ready. We're leaving in a bit."

That's all the permission Alex needs to turn and dash up the stairs, two at a time and in ten seconds.

-

When they leave, Tyler doesn't say a word.

He actually appears to be pouting, sitting with Troye instead of Ed, which in turn forces Connor to sit with Ed instead of Troye.

Alex can just about say with absolute certainty that Ed had a talk with him about not telling Alex about the dinner.

To say Alex is touched that Ed is willing to be ignored for him is a bit of an understatement.

Then again, though, Ed was always weirdly protective of Alex. So the element of surprise is lost on him.

"Could you drive any slower, Pete?" Frank barks from Gerard's lap. The man in question turns around and glares once they're at a red light.

"Would you like to drive, Iero?" he asks icily.

Pete had been in a mood all day. For what reason, no one was quite sure. The only real clue they had was that it wasn't Patrick, as Patrick was in the passenger seat and looking quite content with Pete's fingers laced with his as he slept.

Alex thinks it has something to do with the letter he got this morning, but he supposes he's the only one who knows about that since he's the one who gets the mail.

"Nah," Frank says sarcastically, "wouldn't wanna dethrone the prince up there. Just because his pretty princess has reached that time of the month doesn't mean he deserves to be caught in the crossfire when she pisses everyone the hell off."

Alex is almost certain Pete is going to pull over and choke Frank to death. With the intensity of his stare in that moment, he looks lethal.

It's terrifyingly quiet for a few seconds.

Despite the deadly look on Pete's face and his extra tight grip on the steering wheel in contrast to the way he's holding Patrick's hand, he doesn't pull over and launch himself at Frank. Instead, the light turns green and he drives a little slower than he was. The annoyed look on Frank's face kind of makes Alex want to laugh.

Pete's smirk tells him he's not alone on that.

-

The dinner goes smoothly. They all eat and talk and laugh. It's actually kind of fun.

Alex doesn't feel left out like he figured he would. He and Gerard actually spend most of the dinner discussing a song Gerard wrote the other night. Alex offered to help him with it and that brought Pete into the conversation.

He seemed to lighten up when it came to talking about music. He got all wide eyed and excited when Frank interrupted and started telling him about the guitar parts he figured up. It was really cute. Alex liked when they got along.

Kate and her boyfriend, Andy, started talking to him about the songs they've heard him sing under his breath or when he was cleaning. Katie and her boyfriend, Damon, eventually got into it as well, Katie claiming he should be in a band one day.

And really, isn't that the entire reason he didn't go to college? Because of his daydreams that everything would fall together and he'd end up in a band, touring the world and making people smile? Wasn't that the dream?

It was. It was and Niall brought it up, too. Saying that he wouldn't give up just yet.

He won't. He absolutely won't. He may not be this big time player who has the confidence to sleep his way to the big leagues, but he does have something just as useful. He has talent. He has talent and drive and passion and he knows that one day, being a hopeless dreamer will pay off. He'll do something great.

Maybe not today. _But someday._

"Alex?"

He's being shaken. It takes him a moment to realize that he was off in his own little world and they're home now.

"C'mon," Louis urges, "lets get inside before we're locked out."

It's then that he sees that everyone else is already inside and Louis stayed behind to get him. He smiles and follows Louis towards the house.

He kind of had fun tonight.

-

It's the 14th before he knows it. He doesn't want to leave his bed.

Tyler has been an absolute bitch since that dinner.

Alex really doesn't know what happened, but Ed and Tyler haven't been speaking all that much either. He thinks maybe it's his fault.

"Rise and shine," Kellin calls, opening Alex's bedroom door as slowly as possible.

It's useless. He's been up for hours.

_23 years old and he still sleeps alone._

"Hey, Kell," he says, sitting up a bit.

Kellin nods to himself as he slips inside the room, closing the door behind him. His eyes flicker between Alex's bed and Alex himself.

He ends up crawling onto the bed, sitting Indian style in the middle.

"Happy birthday, Will."

Out of all of their friends, Alex believes he and Kellin to be the closest. Which is why he just called Alex a shortened version of his middle name and didn't get slapped as hard as humanly possible.

He can hear Tyler's cackle now. _"Are you even capable of human contact, Alexander?"_

He is, thank you. There's one thing he's not useless at.

"C'mere, Kell."

Alex opens his arms, a small smile on his face, and Kellin practically melts into him.

Alex Gaskarth is a professional cuddler, thank you. In fact, he gives the best cuddles in the fucking world.

"Mmm. You're soft, Will," Kellin mumbles into his chest.

"That a fat joke?" he asks teasingly, drawing patterns on Kellin's spine.

"No, never," Kellin protests as he snuggles deeper into Alex.

"Yeah, sure."

They lay like that for awhile, and eventually Alex falls back asleep. He's not sure how long he's out for, but when he wakes up Kellin is gone and he's left with the realization that Kellin Quinn is a sneaky little fuck if Alex has ever met one.

He tricked him into sleeping.

The little imp.

"Love you, too, Kell," he whispers into the empty air.

-

He does get out of bed.

It's just, you know, 5 o'clock before he does.

By the time he stumbles down the stairs and into the "family" room, everyone is sat in there around a half eaten birthday cake with his name half gone on it.

"Hey," he says, all eyes turning to meet his still pajama clad frame. Tyler snorts and Troye throws something at him, but Alex doesn't really pay any attention. Instead, he throws himself down beside of Kellin and Vic and rests his head on Kellin's shoulder.

"M'sleepy," he mumbles to him as he snuggles farther into his body. Kellin wraps an arm around him with a small smile. They blatantly ignore Tyler's obvious stare.

Everyone knows that Alex isn't a complete prude. He can handle someone touching him. He can touch other people. Tyler seems to think that because he's never been in a relationship or experienced a fling, that it means he's incapable of touch. Whether it's because he's just an ass or because he genuinely thinks this, Alex isn't for sure, but it gets annoying.

He still ignores him though. Simply because he hates fighting with him.

"I know, Will, but you've gotta wake up for a little bit, yeah?" Kellin's thumb is rubbing circles into Alex's side and it's kind of making this "waking up" thing he's supposed to be doing nearly impossible.

Still, he nods his head and rubs at his eyes.

It's his birthday today.

-

When he wakes himself up enough to speak without slurring his words, he lifts his head from Kellin's neck.

The first thing he takes notice of is the fact that Ed and Tyler are on completely opposite sides of the room. Seeing it makes his head spin.

Next, he notices that Damon and Andy are here. They're hardly ever here. That makes the dizzy spell he seems to have taken intensify.

Troye isn't in his usual spot on the love seat with Connor. Instead, Connor is sat in a recliner talking lowly on the phone to someone and Troye is sitting with Dan and Phil.

Kate and Katie are opposite Vic and Kellin, talking among themselves rather than with their boyfriend's. Andy seems to be in conversation with Vic and Damon is focused on watching Pete and Patrick feed each other cake.

_(It's actually really cute and Alex doesn't blame Damon for almost letting out a loud 'awe' at the sight of Pete smearing cake onto Patrick's face, causing him to squeal. He almost did it himself, if he's being honest.)_

Most of the time, Nick and Matt are around. They don't live in the house with everyone, but they're around ninety percent of the time. It's weird that along with Ian and Anthony, who are also there a lot but don't live with them, they seem to have disappeared.

The one thing that is normal, aside from Pete and Patrick, is Frank and Gerard. They're huddled up together under some blankets, talking quietly to each other. If he focused enough on them, he could tell that Frank's hands were carding through Gerard's hair and there was a small, sweet smile plastered on his face. It was endearing, really.

Despite really wanting a piece of cake, he just curls into Kellin more and lays his head back down.

No sense in moving just yet.

-

"Happy birthday, Alex," Patrick tells him a few minutes later after going and washing his face. Alex sits up then and flashes him a bright grin.

"Thanks, Trick."

It opens the floodgates and he's showered with birthday wishes. They all try and speak over top of one another and it's a bit overwhelming but still, it makes Alex feel loved.

"Guys, guys," he laughs, "calm down. I love you all but really, chill."

They all fall silent with embarrassed faces. It would be funny if Tyler wasn't looking at him like he is at the moment.

Tyler stares at him for a good few minutes, looking like he wants to say something but is being held back from doing so by some imaginary force.

Alex guesses that the imaginary force's name is Ed.

"Well," it's Katie who interrupts the silence, "do you want to open presents, Alex? Or maybe eat some cake?"

"Cake sounds awesome, but if you wouldn't mind could we just open the presents and put a piece away for later? I'm not feeling too well right now."

Katie nods, looking worried for a few seconds before she straightens up and paints a smile on her face. She probably doesn't know it, but he notices how she hesitates before leaving the room to go and get the presents.

Everyone stares at him a bit like Tyler was until Katie gets back with her laptop in her hands.

"I know you must be confused, but I think you'll understand in a few seconds," she says, like it's supposed to answer all of his questions.

He decides to remain silent, instead just watching as she sits beside of him and starts clicking and typing. He doesn't understand until he watches her pull a profile up.

It's a dating website.

"Wha-" he barely gets the first part of the word out before a hand is over his mouth. He can tell who it is by the scent of raspberries.

Tyler. Tyler has his hand over Alex's mouth. Tyler is keeping him from speaking.

What the fuck is happening?

"Alex," Kate says, standing beside where her twin is sat, "we decided you needed a bit of... assistance in the dating department."

"So we went searching and we think we've found the perfect guy for you." Katie points to her computer screen and Alex's eyes follow. What he sees is not what he was expecting.

There's a before and after picture reading 2004/2009. In the before, the guy has wild curly hair and a shy smile. He's lanky and timid, drowning in a Green Day pullover. You can tell he's nervous and unsure of himself. He screams insecure.

The after picture is of someone completely different but with that very same shy smile. He's big and muscular and confident. His shirt stretches across his chest and his stature reveals that he's anything than unsure of who he is and why he exists. He stands with purpose, a passionate gleam evident in his eyes even through the lens of a camera.

His name is Zack. Zack Merrick.

His name is Zack Merrick and he plays bass.

Alex is suddenly aware of what Kate and Katie are actually getting at.

"And by dating you mean..." he trails off, looking at them hopefully. They grin back at him, and it's all he can do not to tackle them in a hug.

"By dating we mean achieving your dreams."

If he was even a little disappointed by the fact that he didn't get any actual presents, it's wiped away by the fact that this is it.

Someday starts today.

-

It was the 17th and he wrote a song last night.

_Someday starts today. Someday starts today. Someday. Starts. Today._

_By dating we mean achieving your dreams._

_Being a hopeless dreamer will pay off._

_Maybe not today. But someday._

"Dedication takes a lifetime, but dreams only last for a night," Kellin read out loud, a big smile plastered on his face.

Everyone was gathered in the family room. Everyone being; Katie, Kate, Kellin, Vic, Troye, Connor, Tyler, Ed, Frank, Gerard, Patrick, Pete, Dan, Phil, Nick, Matt, Niall, Liam, Ian, Anthony, Louis, Harry, Michael, and Ashton.

Yeah, there's quite a few of them when they're all in one room, but apparently this was important.

Or, as Vic said when he called everyone, "Alex is finally getting his head out of his ass and doing something with those dreams of his, this is fucking national news. Everyone get the fuck here right the fuck now."

To be honest, he's quite happy that his friends seem to care so much about his dreams. He didn't really think they paid that much attention to him like he did them.

He didn't think they knew just how much music meant to him, how much he needed it, needed to find a place within it. He didn't think they knew that like he knew that Katie and Kate wanted to share the universes in their heads with the world. Like he knew that Troye wanted to create and Connor wanted to make people smile. Like he knew that Dan and Phil wanted to do the same. Like he knew that Pete and Patrick and Frank and Gerard just wanted to find their place in music, too. Like he knew that Michael and Ashton were already trying.

He didn't think they knew him as well he knew them.

He's starting to see that maybe he was wrong. Maybe he means as much to them as they mean to him.

"This is brilliant, Alex," Ed says as he reads over the lyrics himself, nodding along to a nonexistent beat. "How'd you get the inspiration?"

They're all staring at him and he looks to his lap where his hands are sat, fingers clasped together tightly.

"I... Um, well. I guess I just always wanted to do something, like, something something. I wanted to be this big star and make some kids smile and just, make life happier? I want to mean something and I want to do that through a musical platform. I've always wanted to do it that way and I always told myself 'oh someday, Alex, someday' and I never acted on that someday. I practiced and learned and tried so hard to perfect every little thing I did but I never took that leap of, oh this is where I actually do something with this. I just stayed where I was."

He bites his lip, glancing up at them as he begins to speak again, "Everyone always made decisions for me, told me to do more or less of whatever it was. They took control and I let them and on my birthday, it was the same thing but at the same time it _wasn't_. It was you guys giving me the tools to do what I wanted and not forcing me to take them, just looking at me and being like 'here, we know what you want to do and we're here for you and to show you here's how you can start this project, you don't have to but this exists if you ever want to use it' and it was so overwhelming but exactly what I needed and I just thought, well, someday must start today."

"This is my dream, guys," he says as he looks them all in the eyes, spending a few seconds on each person before his eyes return to his lap, "this is my dream and I can spend a lifetime dedicating myself to the process but dreams only last for a night and if I'm going to pursue this dream someday then that day has to be today."

There's a kind of stunned silence, everyone looking for the words to say but not finding any. It lasts until Harry opens his mouth, speaking in a slow drawl that makes his words all the more real to Alex.

"I'm proud of you, mate. I'm proud of you and I wish you all the luck in the world at anything that you ever attempt to do. If you need anything, you know which room Lou and I are in, yeah?" And Alex didn't realize his words had sounded like he was asking for their support, for their help, but when he looks back he can pin point the exact moment his face twisted up, letting his emotions convey the actual intent of his impromptu speech.

He knows that Harry's the only one who caught it though, because Harry was more observant than any of them and while everyone else heard the words he spoke, Harry heard the words he didn't. _"I need you, please help me, this means so much to me and I need to know you're here, am I dreaming or do you really care, please tell me if it's just me pleasepleaseplease."_

Alex doesn't say a word, and Harry smiles in understanding. They'll talk later.

"We're all proud of you," Michael says, this look in his green eyes that screams his words are truthful. "We love you, Lex, and no matter what we're behind you one hundred percent. You want to start your someday today? Well, we're there."

Ashton smiles at him, nodding along to Michael's words to show that he agrees. "Yeah, Alex. You were here for us, no? When me and Mike said we'd met some guys and we were ready to start our someday? Well now it's our turn to be here for you."

Every person in the room expresses their agreement, their pride. Alex couldn't ask for better friends.

He even couldn't ask for a better friend than Tyler.

"I'm a bitch," Tyler had said, "I am a first class bitch and we all know it. I'm especially a bitch to you, Alex, and that's not really fair, is it? No. No, it isn't. I'm sorry and I hope you know that I'm here, too. I'm here and I'm going to help you find the best band members ever. I'm going to be here for you, Alex, through it all. I know I'm a bitch but I'm a bitch that's also your best friend. Time I start acting like it, huh?"

The grin that split Ed's face in half after Tyler said that made Alex's life just a bit brighter than it had been before.

And when he found them on the couch later on into the night, after everyone who didn't live with them had went home, he thought his own grin would be in halves before he could bring himself to look away. _(Michael, Ashton, Niall, Liam, Ian, Anthony, Matt, and Nick didn't live with them. Why that was, Alex didn't know, but they lived a few minutes away.)_

-

"Where are you going?"

It's Anthony who catches him, which really isn't fair since he's not even supposed to be there today.

"Uh... Work?" Alex almost cringes when Anthony's face lights up with a smirk.

"It's Monday. The 21st. Frank doesn't open on Monday's because he hates them, and it's Christmas week. He's not opening at all and even if he was, he'd never ask you or Michael to come in on Christmas week. Where are you going?"

Alex considers making a break for it. The door really isn't that far away, he could make it. Instead he grips his jacket in his fist a little tighter and bites his lip.

"I'm going to meet Zack at the twin's coffee shop," he mumbles, tilting his head down a bit and barely looking at Anthony from under his fringe.

"Zack? Who's Zack? Oh my... Alex. Are you going on a date?" Anthony's smile couldn't get any wider than it was, Alex was sure. He was also almost positive his own face couldn't get any redder.

"Uh, well. Not really? Zack is this guy the twin's found on some dating website and he plays bass and he's actually kind of hot but in that muscle-y dude kind of way and I'm not really into that so it's not actually a date, more of a potential bandmate interview/excuse to meet a hot guy." It all came out in one breath, mostly. Alex speaking as fast as possible and avoiding eye contact with Anthony at all cost. He just wanted to go and meet Zack and hopefully be one step closer to getting started on this dream of his.

"Yeah, yeah," Anthony smirks, "whatever you say. Have fun."

Alex thinks that's permission to leave if he's ever heard it, so he makes a break for the door. He barely catches Anthony's next words, but because the world hates him, he's not far away enough not to hear him loud and clear.

"Don't have too much fun, though! Have _safe_ fun! Wouldn't want our little virgin Mary to get pregnant his first time!" His loud cackles of laughter will haunt Alex until he gets home later, and maybe even more so after that.

When the door closes behind him, and Anthony's laugh is muffled by the wood, he lets himself breathe freely.

That could've been disastrous had Anthony thought about what time it was in addition to the day.

It's 9 o'clock in the morning. Who in their right mind goes out for anything at 9 o'clock in the morning?

People who haven't done their Christmas shopping yet, that's who.

He's still going to meet Zack, yes. That wasn't a lie. He just... wasn't meeting him at this exact moment of the day. They were meeting at 2.

He just hopes no one mentions this to Anthony and he's able to shop in peace instead of being teased endlessly for procrastinating more than Dan. _(Even Dan had already gotten his shopping done. He'd started a month ago, finishing last week. No one procrastinated more than Daniel Howell. Alex really needed to stop trying to take away his crown.)_

Anthony is known to be a little clueless, so Alex's chances of keeping this a secret are high. He's just not so sure he believes in chance, is the thing.

But it looks like he's handing over his fate to it.

-

"Fucking children. Bane of my goddamn existence. Can't they just not throw tantrums in the middle of stores? I mean, fucking really." Alex walks into the twin's shop mumbling to himself, a pounding in his head from the cries of a 3 year old kid in the middle of his shopping spree. He has an intense hatred for random children under the age of 8 and above the age of 2.

"You okay, Alex?" Kate asks as he slumps down in a chair at the counter, laying his head down.

No. He is very much not okay. He groans to indicate this, pretty sure if he tries to use words his head will explode.

"Ah, headache. I'll get some coffee and a few pain killers, yeah?" she says it like she's asking a question, but Alex knows she doesn't expect an answer.

It takes a few minutes, and it's not Kate who comes back with them, but he gets his coffee and pain killers and feels much better about ten minutes later. So much so that he's able to sit up and start a conversation with one of the people Katie had been in charge of hiring.

Rian is all bright white smiles and hopeless romantic views. His laugh is almost as bright as his smile and as rough as the stubble on his chin. He has a similar humor to Alex's own, quip sharp enough to keep up with Alex. They're laughing and swapping stories before Alex could even think to doubt himself about it. He doesn't think he's ever made a friend faster.

Well. Maybe when he befriended the twins and it led to all of this, this crazy mess that is his life, but that's a story for a different time.

It's 2 o'clock before Alex blinks twice and Rian is sat on the counter in a cross legged position with a cup of hot chocolate sitting in his lap, held with clasped hands. Alex is beside of him, because what the hell is proper, and he's listening to Rian ramble on about his friend Ashley, who is definitely a guy and don't you ever assume otherwise. He doesn't even remember why he's actually there until there's a human brick house standing in front of him, giving him a confused yet hopeful smile as he sticks his hand out.

"Hi, I'm Zack and I'm really hoping you're Alex because if not, then this will end up being extremely awkward." His smile is sweeter than anything Alex has ever known and his expression is filled with this electric kind of hope that makes Alex more than sure that Zack is the right guy for the job he's applying for. It's so right in his face that he needs to take a second to breathe before he slips his hand into Zack's outstretched one, shaking it.

"I am Alex, don't worry. Um. I guess you know why you're here?"

And then it's endless conversation about music and their goals and skills and hopes and dreams and it goes better than Alex ever dreamed it would.

It's made even better when Rian jumps into the conversation, all excited eyes and desperate hope. Rian is a drummer. Rian is a bandless drummer.

Rian wants to take a chance on this. Rian wants to be a part of this.

Alex can't fucking breathe.

-

"Next week?" The conversation has to come to an end, but they're making plans.

"Yeah, totally. Same place?" That's Zack. _The bassist for Alex's band, Zack._

The bassist for _their_ band, Zack.

"Yeah. I'm here all week, if you want to stop by." There's an unspoken _except for Wednesday and Thursday_ but then an idea practically slaps Alex across the face.

"Hey, why don't you guys come over for Christmas Eve? If you don't have anything going on? My friends and I usually have this kind of slumber party type deal where we all watch Christmas movies and bake and sing and stuff. There's always room for more, if you're into coming."

He watches their faces light up, both of them nodding excitedly. It's a plan.

Right before Zack walks out the door, though, he turns back to Alex.

"Would it be alright if I invite my friend Jack? Without me he'd be alone on Christmas and I really don't want to see that happen," he asks. Alex just nods, muttering a 'yeah, of course' as Zack grins and leaves, door chiming behind him.

Alex couldn't get any happier right now if he tried.

He doesn't notice the twin's watching him from the counter with smiles on their faces, exchanging looks like they're in on something he knows nothing about.

He's too high on life to notice much of anything.

-

The 24th comes and goes. Zack and Rian come and they meet everyone.

They seem to get on well with all of them, and by the end of the night it's safe to say they'll never leave. Especially when Andy walks through the door unexpectedly and it turns out Rian knows him. They're officially intertwined into this mess of a friendship they've all got going on.

They're here forever now.

Zack didn't bring Jack. Says Jack wouldn't answer the phone and when he went to his house and his usual bar, he wasn't in either places. He was worried but apparently it happened often. Jack didn't sound like much of a happy person.

But Zack says he's the funniest guy he knows and he's always smiling. He's sweeter than cherry pie and the biggest man whore to ever live. At the same time as he's a man whore, though, Zack says he can recite the entirety of the Home Alone movie and puts on dresses for fun. He's a total band geek and would bite your head off if you touched his guitars. He has a Nightmare Before Christmas pick and Jack Skellington playing a guitar etched into his skin with ink on his chest. He loves dogs and bleaches part of his hair to the point where they call it the skunk haircut. He's Jack and he sounds unhappy but he's the happiest guy Zack knows.

Zack sounds almost in love with Jack. He talks about him like he hung the moon and has this blinding smile on his face that could melt the sun.

But then he looks at Rian and Alex knows. Alex knows that his smile while talking about Jack could melt suns but his smile while looking at Rian could spread light to the darkest corners of the universe. His smile while looking at Rian could make dreams come true.

On the 24th, 5 days ago, Alex discovered what it meant to fall in love at first sight. Because he watched it show through the faces of his two new friends, his two new band mates.

The 24th was a good day.

-

On the 25th they had opened presents.

They resumed life on the 26th.

On the 27th they started planning the New Year's party.

The 28th Alex showed Zack and Rian his song book.

Today, the 29th, Alex sat behind a camera while Dan and Phil drew cat whiskers on each other.

It didn't make any sense, but at the same time it did.

For a couple of years, two or three, Dan and Phil have been something called YouTubers. Dan's channel - featuring Dan procrastinating his life away, expressing everyone's inner thoughts, and questioning the meaning of life - was called Danisnotonfire. Phil's channel, which is simply Phil being Phil, was called AmazingPhil. They did this thing every year called Phil Is Not On Fire and today that's what they were doing.

They asked Alex to film for the first time ever and Alex doesn't know if he's more weirded out by the actual content of the video or the fact that Dan and Phil are just friends on the internet.

He thinks it's the friends thing. He's been around them too much to be weirded out by the video content, but he's never actually had to watch them act platonic before. It's weird and strange and wrong. He doesn't like it at all.

He smiles when they kiss throughout the video, even though a rush of pain shoots through him every time he hears one of them mumble about it being more to edit out later.

Fuck, he's never filming for them again.

-

On the 30th, Alex knows something is up. Everyone is tense around him and Tyler doesn't make a single remark all day.

The only people being normal are Dan and Phil, who are locked up in their room editing because they have to have the video up tonight.

He doesn't like the feeling of not knowing what's happening. He doesn't like it at all.

"Guys?" Frank and Patrick are talking in the kitchen, abruptly stopping when Alex walks in.

"Yeah?" Patrick's voice shakes and for goodness sake, Alex has had enough.

"What the fuck is up with all of you?" he spits, almost flinching himself when Patrick recoils. He thanks his lucky stars that Pete is out today.

Frank laughs nervously, "What do you mean? Nothing's up with any of us."

It's that. That blatant lie that comes out of Frank's mouth. He's purposely avoiding the question and it makes Alex's brain shut down.

 _"Oh,"_ is all he gets out, arms coming up around his stomach. He nods, closing his eyes briefly before taking a deep breath and leaving the room. Had he been focused, he would've heard the smack of skin against skin and Patrick's yell of _"You idiot!"_

But he wasn't. He wasn't because Frank lied to him and they were all lying to him and there was a rule in this house against secrets that they were all breaking.

Secrets made Alex nervous. His brother kept secrets. His brother lied.

_His brother was dead._

_Don't go there, Alex, don't go there._

He's dead. Tom is dead. Tom kept secrets and now Tom is dead. He lied to him and hid the bottles under wadded paper with scribbled _"I'm sorry's"_ and now Tom is dead. Alex's brother is dead.

_Stop._

He's dead.

Shut up, shut up, shut up

DeadDeadDead.

_Stopstopstop. Shut up._

Dead.

His brother was dead.

-

Katie isn't often a violent person. She prefers to use words, carefully chosen and equally as painful.

But when she comes home and finds Patrick screaming at Frank, Pete pacing a hole into the floor, Tyler swearing under his breath, Troye crying, and Gerard muttering about triggers and abiding by the rules of the house, she gets the slight urge to smack someone.

"What's going on here?"

The entire room freezes. She asks again.

Tyler explains the situation, swearing every other word and going red in the face with a type of anger that Katie starts to feel spark in her own chest.

She's going to kill Frank.

"What the actual fuck, Iero?" she yells, voice laced with ice and venom. She hears her sister behind her, asking herself why they had decided it was okay to leave everyone unsupervised when something so important was happening and they had to make sure it went perfectly. She was asking herself the same.

"I wasn't thinking," Frank mumbles in response, "I wasn't thinking and it didn't hit me what I'd done until his face crumbled and his eyes suddenly weren't his anymore."

"Fuck," she says, "fuck, guys. Do you realize what this means? Do you realize what we've done? All his progress, his happiness, his recovery. It's gone. It's all gone. Fuck."

"We have rules," Kate's voice is hoarse, but she continues from behind Katie, "we have rules and they exist for a purpose. For the well being of everyone in this house. We don't lie to each other. We don't keep secrets. Sure, little things kept to ourselves and small things when it's a surprise, but we don't blatantly lie to each other. Not that way. The proper way to handle that was to actually tell him it's a surprise, not lie and tell him that nothing is going on. He's not stupid."

Katie can't even bring herself to say anything more, so she just falls onto the couch and puts her head in her hands.

They're all silent, save for Pete's footsteps as he continues to pace and Troye's still falling tears.

They don't know what they're meant to do now.

"I'm sorry," Frank says quietly after awhile. Gerard comes over to him and wraps his arms around him, allowing Frank to melt into him and sob into his neck.

"I didn't mean to," he chokes out, "I love Alex, I didn't mean to."

"Shush, baby, we know, we know you didn't mean to hurt him," Gerard hushes, running a hand through Frank's hair and placing a soft kiss to his head.

"I didn't mean to," he repeats, _"I didn't mean to."_

It's like he's a broken record and he keeps repeating it, sobbing it and stuttering it and choking on it. It's like he can't stop saying it because he doesn't think anyone believes him. He doesn't feel like they should, even if it's true.

Maybe if he says it enough, it'll sink into the walls and Alex will know, know that Frank loves him like a brother, thinks the world and more of him, wants nothing more than to chase all of his nightmares away forever.

Maybe if he says it enough, Alex will know, and time will reverse and everything will stop.

_"I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to."_

-

When Kellin finds out, Katie is certain the world is about to come to an end.

He stomps through the house, shouting Frank's name, swearing, promising bodily harm.

He'd do it, too. Katie doesn't doubt that Kellin would kill for Alex if it came down to it.

Kellin doesn't calm down until Frank is in front of him, face tear stained and being held up by Gerard, still mumbling that one sentence over and over again like he knows nothing else.

"Oh, Frankie," Kellin murmurs, heart dropping. Everyone seems broken, from what he's witnessed so far, and he kind of wishes Alex could see it, see how much he means to them.

"I didn't mean to," Frank mumbles, but this time he stresses it, and he's not speaking aimlessly to whoever will listen. He's speaking to Kellin.

Frank looks up at him with desperate eyes, pleading with him. "I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't mean to. I love him and I'd fight the world for him if he asked me to and I didn't mean to, Kellin, I didn't."

He's begging and pleading and Kellin's heart fucking _breaks._

_No, it doesn't just break, it shatters._

"I know, babe," he speaks softly, soothingly. He steps forward and suddenly his arms are full of Frank. Frank with his desperate pleads and wet eyes and shaking body.

_"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry."_

His shirt is wet now and Frank leans all of his body weight onto him, but he doesn't mind that much because Frank is falling apart in his arms and nothing else matters right now.

Alex. Alex matters. But Louis and Harry are with him right now.

"I've got you, Frankie, I've got you. Let it out. I know."

-

Kellin stays with Frank for awhile, but around 6 he goes and knocks on Alex's door.

He whispers that it's him, it's Kellin and he's here. He opens the door when he gets a sound that sounds like a 'come in.'

If Frank shattered his heart, Alex sucks it out of his chest and leaves a black hole in its place.

He's curled against the wall, eyes blood shot and devoid of anything. Despite the red, his cheeks remain dry and unmarked by any tears.

He's pale and fragile, emotionless but terrified. He's broken.

Kellin wants to run away and hide at the same time that he wants to wrap Alex up in his arms and keep him safe from everything and anything this world tries to throw at him.

He thinks he's going to be sick.

 _"Will,"_ he says weakly. Alex looks over at him, blinking unseeingly.

"Will," he tries again, and he sees a flash of Alex appear.

"Kell," he croaks, and Kellin is across the room and has Alex in his arms before you could blink.

Alex is shaking, dry sobs leaving his throat the moment Kellin's arms circle around him. It's nice to know Alex trusts him this much, but he can't focus on that when Alex starts mumbling into the material of Kellin's still damp shirt.

"I know he didn't mean to lie to me, I know that. It hurts, though, Kell. It hurts and he lied to me, he lied to me and now he's dead and I don't know if I could- if I could get through it if- I just can't, Kell, and there's a secret and it's important and so was his and I just-" Alex starts choking up, actually beginning to cry. The tears he was holding back race down his face hot and heavy. Kellin wants to plug his ears and drown out everything because this, this is what heartbreak sounds like. This is what Alex completely shattering sounds like.

Kellin starts crying, too.

"It's okay, Will, it's okay. Everything is okay. Frank is okay and you're okay and I promise you, wherever Tom is right now, he's okay, too." It's everything Kellin can do not to list every single person they know, reassuring Alex that everyone is okay and they're alive and they love him so fucking much that they're breaking apart at the thought of him being hurt. He barely holds his tongue.

They somehow shift into a laying position, Alex's face buried in Kellin's neck and Kellin hiding within the confines of Alex's hair. They cry themselves to sleep.

-

Troye comes down into the kitchen, where mostly everyone is gathered aside from Gerard and Frank, and tells them about what he saw in Alex's room. That both Alex and Kellin are down for the count.

"They're close," Harry observes.

Louis nods, "Yeah," there's a pause, "why aren't we all that close with him? Why did he open up when it was Kellin, but not with us?"

No one really has an answer to that. It was just always common knowledge that when Alex had a problem, Kellin was the person to fix it. When Alex was down, Kellin knew why. When Alex needed someone, he needed Kellin.

They'd never questioned it before.

"Maybe it's because when we all looked the other way, Kellin didn't."

Vic's words don't even sound like a suggestion, more of 'this is fact' than anything else. When they all looked the other way, Kellin didn't. When Alex needed someone, Kellin was there. They never really were.

It never occurred to anyone that maybe Alex needed to be reassured with little things all the time than with grand gestures every so often.

It never occurred to them that while they were all one big family, they still needed to make sure everyone in that family knew they were a part of it.

Fuck, they messed up.

"What are we going to do?" Connor is the one who asks the question on everyone's minds. What do they do?

"We're going to go through with tomorrow and make sure that from now on, everyone knows that they're just as much a part of this family as anyone else," Katie answers. There's a general nod of agreement and they all eventually wander off to their bedrooms. Tomorrow is a big day.

The last person to leave is Tyler.

He looks up at the ceiling, acting like it's Alex he's speaking to.

"I really hope this works out and you're happy, Lex."

-

On the 31st, they have the party. It starts at 5.

Alex sticks with Kellin, going through the motions and smiling when appropriate. All he wants to do is sleep.

The alcohol reminds him of Tom.

No one seems to have thought about that.

-

He's sitting outside on the grass, looking up at the stars, when the clock strikes 8. He has no idea what that number means.

He hears the backdoor close, but he doesn't look. He assumes it's Kellin.

It's not.

"Are you Alex?"

The voice is as soft as the blanket on his bed and when the owner sits beside of him, he looks over.

"Yeah," it comes out breathy but Alex can't find it in him to care. This person is fucking beautiful.

"Good," the person fucking giggles and Alex thinks his heart is going to burst, "I'm Jack."

The name registers immediately. Jack. Jack Barakat. Jack "skunk hair" Barakat. Zack's friend Jack.

"Hi."

What the fuck. Hi?

"Hi," Jack giggles again and it makes up for Alex's screw up.

"Why're you out here?"

Jack licks his lips, brown eyes lit up by the glow of the moon. Alex thinks his eyes are made of stars.

"I came to find you," Jack says simply, grinning so wide that his eyes squint a bit and these lines appear beside his mouth.

"Why?" Alex doesn't understand why a creature as perfect as Jack Barakat, what with his starry eyes and melodic laughter, would ever come searching for someone like him.

"Because Zack told me about you and I thought you were cute." Jack never stops smiling, Alex has come to realize, and he's not sure that it bothers him all that much. In fact, he's pretty sure he wouldn't mind seeing that smile everyday for the rest of his life.

Alex blushes, and Jack's smile gets impossibly wider, and yeah. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing it for the rest of eternity. Not one bit.

He's actually tempted to ask if he can put his smile in a bottle and keep it forever, he loves it that much.

_(Throw his laugh in there with it. Double the perfection.) (Alex knows the bottle would break though, because so much perfection can only exist in one place in very special cases.) (Jack Barakat was that special case.)_

"Why are you out here, then? Assuming I'm allowed to ask questions, too, of course."

Alex contemplates lying, but he's under the stars and the stars have been his confidants since he was old enough to understand that no matter what, they would always be there for him.

He doesn't end up lying, simply because he knows some people are stars, too, and he thinks maybe Jack is one of those people.

_("I don't want to be here anymore, Kell," Alex whispered one night. It had been a bad night, a really bad night. Tyler and Troye had been screaming at each other for hours about something stupid, and it carried until soon Frank and Pete were at each other's throats and so were Niall and Harry. He hated yelling._

_"I know, Alex," Kellin had said, and Alex knows now that he had been crying silently. Could recognize that little hitch in his voice anywhere now that he knew it better._

_"Kell?" Alex whispered, trembling hands grasping at Kellin's shirt._

_"Yeah?" Kellin had whispered back, hanging onto Alex with ever tightening arms._

_"Will you always be here?" And because they had been young, young and vulnerable and clueless, Kellin had said forever._

_"You're my stars, Kell. My stars and my night and my entire galaxy."_

_"Yeah, Will, yeah. I guess I am."_

_That had been the first time Kellin had ever used the name 'Will'. Also the last time he ever called him by his first name. Kellin knew the implications of being Alex's stars, had heard it whispered to him in the dark of the night when Alex was too scared of himself to be alone. He knew it meant that Alex trusted him, expected him to always be there for him like those stars had been when he couldn't tell the trees from the brick walls of his house. He knew it meant everything and he wasn't sure he knew yet how to be everything, but he swore he'd find out._

_If only only to keep Alex believing in the safety of the night sky.)_

"Alcohol reminds me of my brother," he whispers, words coming out barely audible.

"Is that a bad thing?" Jack acts like it might be a crime to ask the question, while Alex simply laughs quietly, the sound a bit empty.

"My brother's name was Tom. He- he had a problem. He didn't feel... happy? I guess. He lied and drank and drank and drank and drank until there wasn't any of him left to continue drinking. He drank until he died."

Alex smiles, and it's a smile filled with pain and hurt and confusion. He still doesn't understand why it happened. He probably never will.

"He kept a lot of things to himself, Tom did. He lied and said that nothing was wrong, nothing was going on, but something was. He wasn't happy and he hated himself and life and everything that had a heartbeat. He just despised existence itself and he didn't tell anyone. He didn't tell me. His little brother who just wanted to know why there was so much paper on his floors and why the ground crunched under his big brother's feet. He didn't tell me and I guess he was right not to. I wouldn't have understood."

The only person who knows any of this is Kellin. Kellin knows everything there is to know about Alex, has been there and listened when Alex needed him the most. It should be weird talking to Jack like this, but it's not. Instead, Alex finds that it's easy. It's easy to talk to Jack just like it's easy to talk to Kellin.

He decides to call people like Kellin and Jack star people. They're easy to talk to, always listening, just like the stars. _Star people._

"But I could've helped. Or, well, someone could've. He was never alone and he just lied and I think he started to believe the lies himself after awhile. Maybe he drank so much that he just couldn't tell the difference anymore. Maybe he was just lost. I don't know and I'll never know and sometimes, I'm okay with that. I've learned to accept what happened, but sometimes things happen and it all comes rushing back and," _Alex can't breathe._

The world is spinning and everything is so loudloudloud yet it's all so far away that he can barely hear it and fuck, the air tastes like ashes and feels like heat instead of air. He's falling.

He's falling and Jack catches him.

There's touch and Alex can feel Jack, can feel the roughs of his fingertips and the smoothness of his palms and the slow yet fast thumping of his heart and he can feel.

There's an anchor and it's Jack and everything still tastes of ash and the air is still warm but he can hear and smell and feel.

"Alex? C'mon, take deep breaths, babe. I've got you, yeah? You're with Jack and everything is okay, I promise. Please breathe for me, please? I need you to get calm for me, babe, and you have to breathe to do that. Slow, even breaths, yeah? Copy me, okay?" And Jack sounds anything but calm but Alex tries to match his breathing pattern, tries to calm down because he can think now and he knows what this is.

He's coming down from a panic attack.

"Yeah, that's good, Xander. Can I call you Xander, by the way?" The way Jack's voice goes from soothing to innocently questioning makes a laugh bubble up in his throat.

"I got a laugh," Jack cheers, "I'm taking that as an affirmative, Xander."

No one has ever called him Xander before. He likes it.

But he thinks he'll only let Jack use it. It's kinda special now.

"You're really pretty, you know that?" Jack says, and it's out of the blue and his face is completely serious yet somehow soft. Alex feels like he's floating.

He ducks his head. "M'not," he mumbles.

Jack gets closer, impossibly closer, and tilts Alex's head up. All Alex sees are stars.

"You are," and Jack kisses him.

Jack kisses him.

Jack. Kisses. Him.

He's lost in the sensation, in the way that Jack's lips are chapped but so soft and sweet, the way that he tastes like vodka and cherry coke, the way he's Jack and he's kissing him and it's so so so so sweet.

He's so lost that he doesn't even notice the fireworks, doesn't hear the pops and the cheers and doesn't realize that they've been out there for four hours.

It's midnight.

-

"Alex and Jack, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g," Kellin skips around in a circle, singing. Alex and Jack are still outside and still kissing slowly, but Kellin, Tyler, Katie, Kate, Frank, Troye, and Ed have been watching them for the last few hours.

Call them creepy, but they just wanted to see Alex fall in love for the first time.

They didn't expect for him to also get his first kiss, and at midnight too, but it makes it even better.

"Well," Kate says, "we did it."

Katie laughs, "That we did."

"How do you think he'll react when he finds out Jack plays the guitar?"

"He better kiss our feet," Troye comments, all sarcasm and twisted up lips.

Katie peers outside, seeing Alex fall into Jack laughing. It makes her feel accomplished.

It makes her feel alive.

"Okay!" Franks shouts. He waits until everyone is looking at him before continuing.

"Time to place bets on when Alex will lose that last v-card of his." Frank is smirking and Katie rolls her eyes before she offers up a hundred on a month. Tyler two hundred on a week. Troye fifty on two weeks. Kate doesn't bet and Kellin holds his hands up.

Ed shrugs and throws a hundred at Frank, "Tonight."

-

Ed wins the bet.

And the one after that about which band they'll eventually get their name from.

He also wins the bet after that over when Zack and Rian will end up fucking.

No one makes bets with Ed after he proceeds to win the one over when they'll get a dog AND what they would name it.

Ed Sheeran was ace at bets.

-

All Time Low and 5 Seconds of Summer go on tour together 2 years later.

Dan and Phil, recently out, interview them after every show.

Tyler, Troye, and Connor started something big. They started a movement. They like to call it the power of Team Internet.

Gerard and Frank have an odd thing going on with some of their friends where they sometimes open for All Time Low.

Pete and Patrick eventually end up in a band called Fall Out Boy. It's serious at the same time as it isn't.

Kate and Katie start a publishing company under All Time Low's label, selling their books they write about the different ways their lives could've turned out.

Niall, Liam, Louis, and Harry try out for a show called the X-Factor together. They get grouped with a guy named Zayn. They're One Direction and they win the fuck out of everything they ever do.

Kellin and Vic get married. Sometimes Vic will sing in All Time Low's songs as a feature, and so will Kellin, but they stay where they were. With their family.

Andy ends up being in a band called Black Veil Brides with Rian's friend, Ashley, who was most definitely a guy.

He and Kate didn't last, and sometime later they all find out Andy and Ashley fell in love.

Damon is a YouTuber as well, and he's around more often than not due to the whole Team Internet thing.

Nick and Matt start a channel called Lush that documents their relationship. They don't travel with everyone, so it's nice to be able to see how they're doing.

Ian and Anthony have a channel called Smosh, which was the most subscribed channel on YouTube until a gamer named Felix, also known as Pewdiepie, took the crown. They handed it over happily.

Ed Sheeran turns out to be considered a legend. He's a singer song writer with no sense of style but no one would have it any other way.

They all turn out okay, and the stars shine down on them always.


End file.
